effin' the uneffible

The web is all a buzz with reports coming in from all over the Web, AT&T is to buy T-Mobile for a reported $39 billion dollars. The major reason why AT&T would want to do this to to now create the USA’s largest mobile network. Since according to AT&T their network traffic has increased over 8,000 percent in the last four years. I wonder why that is… surely not because of Droid… but I digress. Buying T-Mobile means AT&T would not have reinvent the wheel by expanding and building new towers to support the increasing growth in mobile demand.

I think this is kinda funny because many people out there thought they were sticking it to the preverbal MAN by jail breaking their iPhones. Yeah some claim it was to get apps that would never be approved by Apple, while others brazenly set out to buck the system and basically steal from AT&T and Apple. I think this reason is bullshit and they totally deserve having their theft cock-blocked by AT&T.

You can read the full Press Release or get the story from The Unofficial Apple Weblog TUAW

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Funny how they say history tends to repeat itself. As always the old becomes new and technology no matter how much it moves forward doesn’t always seem to get away from this idiom. In thousands of offices all around the world there are billions of widget makers struggling every day to figure out simple and easy as ways to communicate via the written word. Unfortunately, most of them assume the only answer is the modern word processor.

Now there was a time when the word processor meant a 20 pound device with the really small screen and a not quite detachable keyboard. Like a typewriter minus the White Out. As computers came into play one the first issues ever tackled was a good word processing solution that could replace the the electronic typewriter and single tasking electronic word processors of the day.

This was a fine and dandy solution up until there was some bifurcation of formats between WordPerfect, which was the giant of word processors at the time and Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word at that time was oddly enough the new kid on the block. /little did we know that soon it would take over the world and be the planet’s go to word processor. I personally am not a big fan of Microsoft Word mostly because it has grown into a large program without any usable features added since about Word 6 (Office 4.2). However, as more and more people buy Microsoft Word the need for Word compatibility continues to grow. The odd thing is the majority of the people who use Microsoft Word only use it as a glorified electronic typewriter.

Most of the people using Microsoft Word are not using the features that require such a large program. In fact almost all of them basically need a simple easy-to-use text editor with spellcheck. I would say about 90% of the people who use Microsoft Word are really using the comparable feature set of WordPad or TextEdit.

Knowing this to be true I have personally boycotted the modern word processor and continue to write all of my communications in my generic text editor. My text editor of choice is TextMate, however there are a slew of other options on the market both free and paid for all platforms available including the modern smartphone.

So what does this all mean? It means that I’m going to be putting together a series of articles and tutorials that will teach people how to go back to the text editor as their word processor of choice. Thus eliminating the need for costly programs that hog up gigabytes of data on your hard drive, drain your battery, eat up lots of processing power to sit idle and require proprietary data formats. Yes I’m talking about Microsoft Word but this also includes iWork and a bunch more.

So be on the lookout for these things coming soon. Check back on this website often as well as follow my twitter feeds and Facebook posting.

I’d like to give a shout out to my friend Brett Terpstra who will be providing some of the tools that I used to get a lot of work done via simple text editing. If you’re fanatical notetaker or just person that loves the store tidbits of information I highly suggest you check out NVAlt which is Brett’s Fork of Notational Velocity.

I also want to give a shout out to John Garcia for his #Progressis social media campaign for giving me the inspiration to write this post and begin this series of tutorials that I’ll be producing concerning better living through text. Progress is going back to the simple text editor as a way of communicating better, faster, stronger.

Rip DVD’s on a Macintosh?

A question I give very often about people switching to the Macintosh from the Windows environment, as well as from longtime seasoned Mac users, is how does one rip a DVD using the Macintosh platform. DVD ripping for a long time has been stuck somewhere between mysteries of lost treasure and geek speak that only the highly trained technical professionals could do without the aid of really clunky, expensive and malware laden programs of the Windows environment.

Welcome Mac DVDRipper Pro a very nice easy-to-use and polished DVD ripping tool for the Macintosh platform. DVD Ripper Pro allows you to copy your DVDs to your Mac so you can easily view them without having to waste your battery spinning your optical drive.

Here’s the Deal!

Mac DVD Ripper Pro user some pretty smart decrypting algorithms to make sure that you get the best quality videos from your original DVDs (and when we say your DVDs we mean DVDs that you really own; although, I’m not the freaking cops so do you feel is right).

One of the great things about Mac DVDRipper Pro (version 2.0.1) is it does allow one to have a free trial and will work totally as the full version of the software without any hidden limitations with the exception of your abilities not only rip five initial DVDs to test them out. If you decide to rip your DVDs in the disk image format you can also use popular disc burning software to actually make physical copies to blank DVD recordable media.

Mac DVDRipper Pro (version 2.0.1) normally retails for $9.95 but for the next day you can purchase this wonderful ripping tool for an exceptional $5.95 that equates to 40% off the normal retail price. If for some reason you don’t decide to purchase it within the next day Mac update Promo.com will also study this software within the next eight days for $8.46 which is roughly 10% off. Basically for the price of the large jumbo juice with 1,000,000 pounds of sugar you can go ahead and buy yourself a great DVD ripping tool like Mac DVD Ripper Pro. I strongly suggest you jump on over to Mac update promo website and grab yourself a copy before that 595 price runs out.

What’s new in Version 2.0

*Main movie only extraction: skip the previews and extras and save space!
*Faster and more reliable ripping
*Revamped interface

Brett has created some of the worlds coolest and time-saving pieces of code ever crafted if you are a blogger, web designer or code monkey. You can see an ever increasing list on Brett’s blog. There are a lot really; however, I’ll just give you some of my favorites.

NVALT, A Notational Velocity fork with widescreen, collapsible notes panel, MultiMarkdown/Markdown/Textile rendering and preview, as well as rendered source preview for MultiMarkdown.

Markdown Quicktags for WP a plugin for WordPress which replaces the HTML editor with a Markdownâ€“enabled set of buttons and features. I’m actually using it to write this post.

Blogsmith a TextMate Bundle for blogging on sites without XMLRPC support with handy tools and markdown support

I spent the last few days hanging out with Brett and I have to agree with Merlin he is a freak of nature when it come to writing great code that will save you a metric-crap-ton of time and headache. Defiantly one of the smartest people I know. You should follow Brett on Twitter and remember to visit his site here.

In case you are not aware of who exactly Merlin is… I suggest you check out his projects page on his site and if nothing else at least watch his epic “Inbox Zero” video and read his productivity articles on 43 Folders. Since I have adopted the methodologies taught by Merlin and coded by Brett I have seriously increased my productivity with out doing nearly as much busy work.

Drop me a line or leave a comment If you’ve found this to be useful to you as well. Mahalo

While cruising the floor of Macworld 2011 say stopped by the Algoriddim Booth to check out their “djay” product lineup. I have used the “djay”Â desktop app before an thought is was livable but not something i would used on a daily basis in my real-world djay gigs. I recently got wind of their new “djay”Â iPad application and was more than a bit curious.

The Ambush

While standing in line at the Algoriddim booth to get a crack at playing with the app and maybe do an interview with Fredric Seifert the demo guy from Algoriddim is got hoodwinked into testing this live on camera for TUAW by my now ex-friend TUAW Blogger and host of TUAW TV Live, Steve Sande. The iPad version of “djay” was impressive. I’m not going to replace a Serato setup with it any time soon; however, it is a load of fun and shows the promise of DJ applications on the touch interface of iOS devices.

The Future of DJing

Nice tag line for the applications but I have to say it is not quite ready for primetime but it is getting very close. Probably closer than many DJ’s will want it to. If you have an event and need a jock to keep the mood of the event flowing but have a limited budget the “djay by Algoriddim” products can save you some money of hiring a live DJ. Try the demo of the Mac application and see what you think

I got all set and ready to plan my trip for MacWorld 2011 in San Francisco when I started looking at various hotels only to find out that everything was booked or more expensive than a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills diamond encrusted puppy collar. So being lost for what to do next, I sent out a tweet to the Twitterverse asking for some advice from my fellow MacWorld goers on decent, inexpensive, boutique-style hotels in San Francisco. My buddy, Mike Rose of TUAW, told me about this wonderful site, Airbnb.com.

So I decided to give it a shot. What I found at Airbnb.com was that the website is absolutely amazing. In a nut shell Airbnb.com allows homeowners or condo dwellers the opportunity to rent out their extra room or otherwise unoccupied living space like a hotel to people traveling in their area. This works great for a place like San Francisco because a lot of San Francisco people are bi-coastal or frequent flying corporate employees.

There was some great deals on the site ranging from apartments to share with the owner to apartments to take over; with pricing from about $30/night and up. I was luck enough to score a room in Soma, (South of market to the non-San Franciscans) for $65/night. Naturally at first, I thought to myself â€œSo, whatâ€™s the catch?â€ And much to my amazement, there is nothing outside of a $30 booking fee that basically goes to keeping Airbnb in business. To make booking easier, Airbnb.com has a clever IOS application which I promptly installed on my iPhone and through their iPhone application I was even able to check out deals of the day in various locations, too bad I wasnâ€™t on my way to Paris. I found the app easy to use, easy to search, and signing up to actually communicate directly with the temporary landlord was pretty painless as I was able to get updates via email, Text or from Airbnb.com.com.

Before I made my reservation, I decided to view the profile of my host (Joe G) and lucky me, he is one of the designers for Airbnb.com which made me feel a little less like I was signing up be roomies with an Axe Murder. Once I was able to talk to Joe, he sent me a text to let me know I was able to book my space so I did the booking and got my confirmation within minutes. Painless!!!

The next time youâ€™re traveling and you want to save some money, I strongly suggest you check out Airbnb. This San Francisco company has spaces in over 8,000 cities in 160 countries and has nearly 184 million user miles traveled. Click on the link below if you want to see what they have to offer. Safe travels!